AAP shelters homeless from Delhi’s cold in unused buses

With Aam Admi Party coming into power in Delhi, homeless people have some respite from the bitter cold as the Delhi Government has decided to transform abandoned buses into night shelters.

Thousands of homeless on Delhi streets had nowhere to turn as minimum temperatures plunged to 2.4 degrees and is still hovering at 4 degrees as recorded on Friday. With no respite in sight, the Delhi Government has announced that 100 new night shelters will be built in the coming days but till then at least five Blueline buses have been pressed into service, converted into shelters and are being used by homeless persons and can be seen outside AIIMS hospital.

Seats of these buses have been removed and homeless have been provided blankets and other basic amenities so that they can sleep properly. NGOs came up with the idea to use these abandoned buses as shelters after a survey was conducted and it was found that there were 4018 people sleeping in the open at 212 various locations across the Capital.

Delhiās newly elected Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, had earlier directed sub divisional magistrates to identify homeless persons and to provide makeshift night shelters. This action was taken following the death of two homeless persons on the eve of AAP proving its majority in the Delhi assembly on January 2. Kejriwal wanted urgent steps to be taken by January 4th which resulted in this innovative idea. (source)